| States are betting on remote patient monitoring and other digital tools to modernize care delivery. But an advocacy group says a Medicare proposal to overhaul payments for remote monitoring could undermine those efforts. Remote monitoring allows providers to keep tabs on patients between visits by using connected devices such as blood-pressure cuffs, thus helping patients manage chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart failure. Its use has exploded in the wake of the pandemic, which has prompted fraud concerns among regulators — more on that below. Here are the top-line figures: - A new report from the Alliance for Connected Care found that nearly two dozen states have already awarded about $240 million from the Rural Health Transformation Program for remote patient monitoring services — a number that’s likely to grow because money is still being disbursed.
- The coalition, whose members include Cadence, Johns Hopkins and the American Heart Association, has identified more than 45 states that will likely make investments in remote-patient technology and models based on state applications. The five-year total is estimated to be approximately $2.4 billion.
The five-year program, run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, wants states to prioritize “access to remote care” and the use of “innovative technologies that promote efficient care delivery” as key criteria for where they distribute money from the program. But the agency has also proposed changes to how Medicare reimburses providers for remote payment monitoring within a larger physician payment rule, set to be finalized in the coming weeks. The proposal, which would take effect in January, wouldn’t allow providers to partner with outside vendors to assist with remote patient monitoring. CMS is also proposing to collapse the medical billing codes for this type of care, which critics say would slash reimbursement and further make it financially unsustainable for providers and, ultimately, remove access to care. “There’s a misalignment in messaging and policy priorities,” said Andrew Van Ostrand, senior vice president at Sirona Strategies and an adviser to the Alliance for Connected Care. “You have announcements coming out from the agency — and also congressional offices — touting rural health investment,” Van Ostrand said. “At the same time, you have a policy proposal that would take a sledgehammer to the current reimbursements and model for [remote patient monitoring].” Van Ostrand has been meeting with the Trump administration and congressional offices to sound the alarm and provide them with data. Why it matters: Investments from the rural health program are meant, in part, to stretch a limited rural workforce. States say remote-patient monitoring can improve clinician efficiency, bring care closer to patients and help address provider shortages. - New Hampshire, for example, specifically identified remote monitoring as a way to mitigate primary care shortages.
- North Dakota is funding it under an initiative dubbed “Technology as an Extender” of the rural workforce.
“We are concerned about the sustainability of these investments if the proposed changes to the physician fee schedule are put into place,” said Van Ostrand. The CMS proposal allows providers to continue offering remote patient-monitoring services, but only if a clinician’s in-office staff is providing the care. However, industry advocates say most clinics, health systems and hospitals rely on outside vendors. In crafting the proposal, the agency pointed to a Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General report from 2024 that found roughly 43 percent of Medicare patients who were enrolled in remote patient monitoring didn’t receive all of the required steps, including an internet-connected device, training on how to use it and regular check-ins with a provider reviewing the data. Advocates say that they agree with many of the oversight recommendations from the inspector general’s report, but that the CMS proposal goes too far. One doctor told the Wall Street Journal in July that “it feels a little bit like the treatment is worse than the disease.” Zoom out: Republicans in Congress established the Rural Health Transformation Program as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill, the GOP’s signature domestic policy law enacted last year. It’s a five-year, $50 billion grant program for states to help improve health outcomes in rural areas — meant as an offset to the law’s massive Medicaid cuts. Deals in the health tech space are having a moment. Buyers have already struck $36.5 billion worth of medical technology deals in the first half of the year, according to PwC, which follows a record-breaking 2025. → Buyers are looking for products that stand out, businesses with strong growth potential and technology they can fold into their existing operations. Health tech is a broad umbrella that covers medical devices, health care technologies and digital health — a sweeping sector that includes products such as surgical robots, hearing aids, diagnostics, wearables, telehealth platforms, and AI-enabled tools. Since we’re on a digital kick today, let’s explore some of these new partnerships: Galen Health tracked acquisitions within the digital health sector, which includes companies that provide management infrastructure or help with workflow; medical diagnostics; and patient-facing tools, wellness products, or platforms and telehealth platforms. Disclosed deals reached $5.15 billion in the first half of this year, with an average acquisition value of $515 million. That’s the highest average of any early-year digital health transactions since the first half of 2022, according to the report. Roche acquired SAGA Diagnostics and PathAI just three weeks apart in two deals worth a total of $1.6 billion. The acquisitions gave Roche both an omics diagnostics platform and an AI-powered pathology business, allowing the company to add capabilities in a matter of weeks that could have taken years to develop internally. “When a single acquirer buys two diagnostics platforms three weeks apart, that isn’t opportunism — that’s a buy-list,” Sara Schmachtenberg, head of data and analytics at Galen Growth, wrote in the report. Here are some of the other highlights: - Universal Health Services, one of the largest for-profit hospital and health care management companies, bought virtual behavior health platform Talkspace in a deal valued at $835 million.
- ResMed, a medical device company focused on sleep apnea and respiratory conditions, bought Noctrix Health, a company focused on making wearables to treat restless leg syndrome, for $340 million.
- The report also cites OpenAI’s purchase of Torch as an example of a company purchasing another company to build out new capabilities. Torch had been working on a “unified medical memory” for AI that could bring together siloed health records, wellness data and lab reports. (The Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)
- Virtual health platform Function Health added to its diagnostics and supplement-tracking capabilities by acquiring both Getlabs and SuppCo this spring.
“ICE hasn’t paid for detainee medical care since October. Advocates call it the ‘death policy’,” report St. John Barned-Smith and Ko Lyn Cheang at the San Francisco Chronicle. “How Trump’s latest pharma deals may undermine efforts to rein in drug costs,” STAT’s John Wilkerson reports.
This newsletter is published by WP Intelligence, The Washington Post’s subscription service for professionals that provides business, policy and thought leaders with actionable insights. WP Intelligence operates independently from The Washington Post newsroom. Learn more about WP Intelligence. | 
